Comparative measures of effectiveness in farm-level soil conservation

Abstract. Agricultural soil erosion is serious in developed and developing countries alike. Soil runoff can diminish long-term land productivity and accompanying sedimentation of waterways contributes to flooding and substantially reduces both water quality and the useful life of reservoirs and irrigation works. To design effective erosion control policies, planners need to be able to evaluate conservation efforts by fanners. The research reported here develops comparative measures of conservation effectiveness using the management factors of the Universal Soil Loss Equation. These factors measure the effectiveness of farmers' existing conservation practices and can help policymakers identify the regions and types of farms which are not using effective erosion control measures, enabling them to direct scarce personnel and funds to areas where they are most needed.